All Dressed Up and No One to serve

Sacramento laborers fortunate enough to find and keep a job are finding the money still isn't there.

The fact that a near recessed economy calls for a tightening of our collective belts goes without saying, but nowhere is the financial pressure felt more than on the ladder's lowest rung.

Robert Rush, a server at Chevy's Restaurant on Arden Way says that his sales have gone down to almost half of what they were pre-slowdown.

This can mean the difference between having dinner on the table or trying to make top ramen carry you through the week.

This misfortune is not restricted exclusively to those who depend on tips to pay the bills.

Garret Lewis, a former appliance repairman who now walks to his new job everyday as a pizza chef at Little Caesars claims that upon returning for his final check from his former job he learned that they were having difficulty supplying work for the one repairman left on staff.

Customer service seems to be missing a very key ingredient... The customers.

Carl Berry, a Restaurant manager in Sacramento says that sales are down and labor is up causing employees' shifts to be cut.

Michelle Decaso, a Server under his employ, says she only has a few shifts a week and every one she loses is money out of her pocket, money she desperately needs.

In Garret Lewis's final quote he sums up the effect the economy has had on him, "I was looking for a job for about two months and now I'm working at Little Caesars..."

Time to Tamale

Possibly a few too many tamale enthusiasts came out to enjoy the show at KSFM 102.5 Tamales Festival this weekend, as signs could be seen throughout the event expressing a shortage of... tamales.

It was a happy scene at the festival, where people, young and old, came out to enjoy music, fun and of course tamales.

The Festival was, as many patrons commented, a place for good food and clean family fun. There were booths set up along the walkways for vendors of all types, selling trinkets and souvenirs, recruiting new clients and giving away free samples.

There were also plenty of attractions for the young and the young at heart. From a live Spanish band, to several inflatable bounce houses and slides, to a giant fountain to cool off from the midday heat.

The Festival was began as a competition for the greatest tamale, a practice that was lost in the background of the thoroughfare and commotion of the event.

There may have been mixed opinions regarding the tamale shortage, but there was no dispute
about an entertaining and successful day.

Sylla"bye-bye"

Sac State students return to school this fall with mixed reactions to their first day experiences.

The idea of hearing, "so long" 12 minutes and one syllabus into the first day of a 2 hour and 50 minute lecture class is the academic equivalent of Christmas morning.

Not so for senior Cody Parcell who says that he must travel 30 minutes by car or over an hour on the light rail only to be read a piece of paper and shown the door.

It's the end of summer and everyone's... well, not exactly looking forward to diving back into the college scene, so having that first day with minimal responsibilities, other than showing up and maintaining consciousness is often viewed as a Godsend, according to Sac State students Brandon Van Meeter and Allison Morgado.

According to these digital video majors, having that first day to ease back into the swing of things is a welcome experience. It gives them a chance to evaluate the course as well as the teacher and have the rest of their day to spend in other endeavors.

Students aren't the only ones with an opinion. Professor of communications, Steve Buss, said the first day of instruction is essentially a wash anyway.

Buss says students are busy and preoccupied. Some are going to drop the class, others are going to add. Any lecture given on the first day is basically going in one ear and out the other.

In the following interviews, students and faculty give their opinions on this subject. Is this practice one with any merit?

Are students, and faculty for that matter benefitting from having that one last day of readjustment?

Or, as a commuter school, are students being forced, on threat of being dropped from the class, to make an inessential trip for little more than a few slips of paper?